News Piggie

We’ve been hanging out at our home away from home, The Ronald McDonald House, doing a whole lot of nothing for the past several days.  The weather has been pretty nice, so it feels a bit like torture to be inside.  Here’s why we have to hang out: after Lauren’s type of chemotherapy, the body’s blood counts start to drop (red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, the whole shot).  Everything gets nuked during chemotherapy, which makes Lauren particularly susceptible to “bugs out there.”  We get into a dangerous zone about a week after chemo.  That’s right about tomorrow.  Exposure to coughs, colds, viruses, and the like when she has low counts can be life-threatening.  So it’s a little like a self-imposed isolation.

Lauren has more chemo tomorrow, but then we’re clear with nothing to do but physical therapy (physical torture!) until next week or so.  Until then, we’re planning to lie low; we don’t want to do anything to delay her treatment any more than it has been already.

Something I wanted to share.  Lauren and some of her classmates participated in a fundraising event for Puget Sound Blood Center.  As cancer patients, she and her friends have been the recipients of blood products with numerous transfusions for each patient.  Lots of red beads on Lauren’s Beads of Courage strand, about 35' right now (http://www.beadsofcourage.org/pages/beadsofcourage.htm  ).  Lauren attends school at the hospital itself at Seattle Children’s. This allows her to continue with her studies and not fall behind during her treatment.  She is also able to come to the school room with her IV pole and/or have the teacher visit her when she’s in-patient and not feeling well.  I laugh and tell her: “You CANNOT run from school!”  The kids in Lauren’s school painted masks to auction at the fundraiser.  Here’s a link to the news report.  Look for the smiling girl in the piggy hat:

http://www.king5.com/health/Kids-with-cancer-create-art-to-benefit-Puget-Sound-Blood-Center--149314495.html